Since the beginning of (JA2-) time, there are up to 256 profiles (for mercs, NPCs etc.). Each profile comes with their own voice. This is somewhat limiting for IMPs:

Not only do we need a profile slot for them, we also need a slot for each voice. As a result, the scarcity of profile slots limits the number of voicesets we can have.

As a result of this mechanic, each voice can only be used once (not sure why you want to use a voice several times though). This also means that if you load a previously created IMP via the website, their voice can change. Not sure why this has never been reported as a bug, but it sure is one...

You also can't use merc voices for IMPs as a result.

I think it would be good to have more freedom: to have voicesets be independent of profile slots. So I've just coded this.

As seen in the above video, there are now 5 more voicesets for IMPs. They were created by merc05 and ratpaz from Wizardy8. For those of you who don't know this, Wizardry8 was a game made by Sir-Tech, the same company that made JA2. Quite a few voice actors worked on both games (and there are even some references to Wizardry in the code). As a result, these voices wok quite well, I think. They are a bit flavored and not so bland like vanilla IMPs, which is a plus in my eyes.

Which voices can be used by IMPs is set in a new xml, TableData/IMPVoices.xml:

<voiceset> determines the number of the voice set. <bSex> determines whether its for males (0) or females (1). <szVoiceSetName> is the name you see in the IMP voice selection process. At the moemnt I ignorantly assume that 100 IMP voicesets are enough, but changing that is only ne define away, so no problem there.

Oh, btw, we can now handle up to 2^32 different voicesets. I am optimistic that will be enough for the foreseeable future.

As you've probably guessed, we also have a new tag in TableData/MercProfiles.xml:

<usVoiceIndex> determines the voiceset. So far, this will always be <uiIndex> - When loading an older savegame, I also assume that. But you can now set that however you like. Note that changes in MercProfiles.xml will only affect new campaigns started. If you start a new game with an xml without these tags, it will always use voice 0 - which will cause every person ingame to have Barry's voice

This is savegame compatible.

This has been added to the trunk in r8364 & GameDir r2357. Using the new exe without the new GameDir will cause the people of Munich to legalize meth, but illegalize milk. I hope you're proud of yourself.

Saren threw his head back and screamed in impotent fury, before falling to his throne, head in his claws, trembling in horrified disbelief.

Then he heard a faint chime as Sovereign subscribed to her ECHO channel.

If you want, you can donate to me. This will not affect how and what I code, and I will not code specific features in return. I will be thankful though.

As it is highly likely a modder would like to add the new tag to his highly modified MercProfiles.xml, without having to manually insert and edit that stuff 255 times - you can use regular expressions with Notepad++. In the edito, press [Ctrl] + [H], seach for <ubFaceIndex>(.)</ubFaceIndex> and replace it with <ubFaceIndex>\1</ubFaceIndex>\n<usVoiceIndex>\1</usVoiceIndex> while the option regular expessions is ticked on. Then replace all in the file, this will create the new tags. The (.) part searches for one symbol and stores it, \1 then places that previously stored symbol. You then need to repeat that with (..) and (...), of course.

Also, to further demonstrate how voices are no longer limited to 256, the new voices in IMPVoices.xml have numbers 300-304.

Saren threw his head back and screamed in impotent fury, before falling to his throne, head in his claws, trembling in horrified disbelief.

Then he heard a faint chime as Sovereign subscribed to her ECHO channel.

If you want, you can donate to me. This will not affect how and what I code, and I will not code specific features in return. I will be thankful though.

Well, i answer to my quesion myself.With little editing in ja2_option.ini and Impvoices.xml player can made a lot of IMPs without problems.I checked even imps with same voices no problems found even during travelling with such mercs.Added to game Shepard,Lara croft and one male voice from vengence to mod so 18 imps with different voices now =)

1.Serve the public trust
2.Protect the innocent
3.Uphold the law(c)Robocop

@Parkan
Can you tell me exactly what you did?
I'm playing aimnas and I added this in ja2options.ini (in vanilla, 1.13 and Data-AIM dirs).
I needed to use text editor because INI editor doesn't allow me to select more than 3 females. Also when I load externally edited ja2options.ini IMP_FEMALE_4 is totaly greyed out for editing.

I'downloaded (SVN with tortoise) 8384 build and had everyone sounds like Barry problem but fixed all that.
And I can make 5 female imps, voices work and can be heard in IMP creation but ingame 4th female character with extra voice is silent.
I also get this error at game start:
recruitment settings 300 in imp_female4=300 in ja2options.ini is outside of valid range 1-254, 254 will be used instead

What Parkan said, basically. Not entirely sure how many slots get default values if not entered, but if it works for him, it will do so for you, too.

As to your error message: Up until this feature, profile slot and voiceset number were the same. This is no longer the case. The voiceset number is only used in the 2 xmls quoted in the first post. IMP_FEMALE_4 and so on refer to a profile slot. As profiles are limited to 1 - 254, you get an error message for putting in 300.

Saren threw his head back and screamed in impotent fury, before falling to his throne, head in his claws, trembling in horrified disbelief.

Then he heard a faint chime as Sovereign subscribed to her ECHO channel.

If you want, you can donate to me. This will not affect how and what I code, and I will not code specific features in return. I will be thankful though.

Well,something goes a little bit strange.If few month ago after releasing this feature i managed to add to game more voices and working IMPs(more than 10).Now this feature not work as before.Without editing mercprofiles, only editing impvoice.xml not i still cant go more than 10 imps if i changed maximum in ja2_option.ini.Does this feature goes broke or something else come?

1.Serve the public trust
2.Protect the innocent
3.Uphold the law(c)Robocop